Not All Fun and Games: Videogame Labour, Project-based Workplaces, and the New Citizenship at Work

A scholarly investigation into working conditions in the North American gaming industry.

Motivated by a goal to understand the labor conditions of workers in the videogame industry and their participatory power to create decent work, Not All Fun and Games is a critical examination of a global entertainment juggernaut with revenues that top film, television, and music production combined. Jobs in the industry are heralded as the vanguard of the new economy, governments offer lucrative tax credits to lure game studios to their regions, and game developers often express commitment and passion for their work. Yet, the industry is also known for its toxic workplaces. To understand these disparities and gain insight into twenty-first-century labor conditions, Marie-Josée Legault and Johanna Weststar have carried out a comprehensive mixed-methods study of the North American industry over the past fifteen years. They combine detailed survey data from thousands of game developers with over one hundred qualitative interviews to systematically reveal labor issues such as precarity, lack of workforce diversity, unpredictable schedules, unpaid overtime, low unionization rates, worker burnout, and significant pay inequality.

Marie-Josée Legault is associate professor at École des sciences de l’administration, TELUQ University (Université du Québec).

Johanna Weststar is associate professor of employment relations in the DAN Department of Management and Organizational Studies at Western University.